The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced the 12 finalists for the 2026 European Inventor Award.
In the “Industry” category, the inventions and nominees are:
- Giuseppe Crippa (Italy) and his team, for a method for the rapid and local production of semiconductor probe cards.
• Evangelos Eleftheriou (Greece) and his team, for advances in digital storage technologies covering magnetic storage and flash memory.
• Angeliki Triantafyllou (Greece) and her team, for a patented enzymatic process that improves the stability, flavour and functionality of oat-based beverages.
In the “Non-EPO Countries” category, the inventions and nominees are:
- Yu Haijun and Xie Yinghao (China), for a method of recycling used lithium-ion batteries and converting them into high-performance materials.
• Emily Morris and Thorsten Stoesser (USA and Germany), for a modular hydroelectric system that actively channels water through turbines in existing canals.
• Aníbal Montalva Rodríguez and Miguel Ángel Fernández Donoso (Chile), for a living biofilter system designed to clean polluted air.
In the “Research” category, the inventions and nominees are:
- Sir Adrian Hill (UK) and his team, for a highly effective malaria vaccine.
• Mikko Möttönen (Finland), for an ultrasensitive cryogenic microwave sensor designed to diagnose interference in quantum computers.
• Paula Videira (Portugal) and her team, for a specific antibody capable of distinguishing cancer cells from healthy tissue.
In the “SMEs” category, the inventions and nominees are:
- Jan Čmelík (Czech Republic) and his team, for advancing needleless electrospinning technology for the reliable industrial-scale production of nanofibres.
• Przemek Ben Paczek (Poland) and his team, for a magnetic levitation system designed to adapt existing railway infrastructure.
• Franck Zal (France), for a universal oxygen carrier based on haemoglobin derived from marine worms for the preservation of organs and tissues.
Voting is open until 2 July 2026 at the following link:
https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award#finalists
Since 2006, this initiative has aimed to publicize and highlight inventions that can transform current technical reality and solve some of the greatest challenges of our time.
Carlos Baños.
Patent Department
